Indian Curried Chicken Recipe?

May 8, 2009 8:00 PM

Looking for Restaurant Style Curried Chicken - Indian Recipe?

Hi, I'm looking for a restaurant style curried chicken, I've tried making it myself and I cannot get it as saucy as I like it and the chicken never absorbs the flavors like I get in restaurants. Does anyone have a recipe they enjoy, that's similar to what you'd have at an Indian restaurant?

Please do not just search Indian curry and post random recipes.

Thanks

posted by lwclec072 to food & drink (13 comments total)

Can you tell us what recipe you've tried before? It may be more helpful to pinpoint what you've been doing wrong, as opposed to just suggesting other options.
posted by Ms. Saint at 8:18 PM on May 8

this is the recipe i've tried in the past

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Indian-Chicken-Curry-II/Detail.aspx
posted by lwclec072 at 8:21 PM on May 8

oh and i poached the chicken and used basmati rice before.

thanks
posted by lwclec072 at 8:22 PM on May 8

Try almost any book by Madhur Jaffrey. This page links to several of her recipes (scroll down). I've made her Quick Chicken Korma and found it to be pretty good. That same page also has some great common sense pointers about what should go into a good curry (scroll back up). Even more Jaffrey here.

One possible shortcut for flavour is using one of Patak's curry pastes. It's a British company, but their products should be available almost anywhere in the world. They're quite pungent and oily, but they can get you closer to a good result than ancient supermarket curry powder.

Oh, and the secrets of ANY great restaurant food:

1) Lots more fat than you would expect
2) Lots more salt than you would expect

On preview: that recipe you linked is a weird adaptation. No wonder you didn't like the result. Generic "curry powder", especially if it's old, powdery stuff from the supermarket, doesn't taste as good as a custom blend, olive oil is NOT Indian -- extra virgin, if used, adds a horrible clashing flavour note -- and boneless white meat is rather dry and flavourless. You can make it work, but you are usually better served by slightly fattier chicken thighs, bone in. If you want chicken breast, this baked recipe seems promising (haven't tried this one myself -- yet.)

Poaching the chicken separately -- why? That doesn't do anything to add flavour. Look, a lot of Indian recipes are pretty high in fat, and plenty of people want to avoid those extra calories, but fat doesn't just deliver calories, it delivers flavour. Cook a proper, rather fatty curry occasionally and really enjoy it rather than cheating yourself by cooking an anemic, lowfat curry more often.
posted by maudlin at 8:42 PM on May 8 [1 favorite]

Yeah, do not poach the chicken ahead of time. It will only soak up the flavors if you cook it in the sauce.

Also, if you want extra sauciness, put in more coconut milk. More coconut milk will weaken the flavor of the spices, but that's it. (So, if you want it saucy but really spicy, up all the spices and the coconut milk.)

I know you didn't want random recipes, but I'd at least like to suggest this cookbook. We've had a lot of success using the recipes it provides.

Lastly, this may be completely non-traditional, but my SO and I usually put fish sauce in our curries. You can get it at any Asian market. It smells hideous, but it makes any dish burst with flavor, mmm.
posted by Ms. Saint at 9:18 PM on May 8

You definitely don't want to be making curry with generic curry powder or olive oil. Try to find a good source of spices - order online if you have to! As an example, I usually use cumin seeds, cardamom, turmeric, cayenne pepper, and paprika. The spices you use can vary depending on your preference. You can try adding coriander seeds/powder, garam masala, bay leaf, cinnamon, etc.

The typical way I cook curry is by sauteing thinly sliced onions until almost caramelized, adding finely diced garlic and ginger and frying this a bit, then adding my spices and frying them for a minute or so to release the flavor. I then add the chicken pieces and fry until the outsides are white, making sure to coat them in the spices, then I add a good amount of tomato puree and enough hot water to cover the chicken. I let this cook for about 10 minutes, then I turn down the heat, add a dollop or two of full fat yogurt, cook this a bit longer, and finish, adding salt to taste and some dried fenugreek leaves.

To get the chicken to absorb the flavors better, there are two things that come to mind:
1) Don't use breast meat. It gets dry very easily and tends not to absorb flavors very well. The best meat for curry, in my opinion, is leg or thigh meat.
2) Try recipes which call for marinading the meat first. What you marinade with can vary, but in general yogurt, salt, and lemon/lime juice are used.

As for reproducing the flavor of restaurant curries, it's something I've been attempting to do for a long time. I had a similar question a while ago about reproducing the flavor of murgh makhani/butter chicken which you might find useful. I still haven't gotten quite there, but here are a couple tips for getting closer to the restaurant flavor:

1) Use full-fat yogurt and heavy cream to give the curry a thick, smooth consistency.
2) Slice the onions very thinly and cook them until they get very soft, mushy, and brown. This will help give your curry the sweetness you often taste in restaurants. Take care not to burn the onions, though.
3) Use a lot of salt.
4) Paprika can help give your curry added redness and sweetness. When you mix in the yogurt or cream, the curry will turn into that intense orange color you see in restaurants.

Some of my favorite Indian cooking blogs are Quick Indian Cooking and Hooked on Heat. This recipe for fenugreek chicken is how I usually cook chicken curry. Definitely read this Hooked on Heat post on how NOT to cook Indian food. Her Intro to Indian is an excellent primer as well. Good luck!
posted by pravit at 9:34 PM on May 8 [5 favorites]

Seconding the suggestion to use thigh meat - this recipe is a good one that involves minimal prep and relatively slow cooking.
posted by zemblamatic at 1:21 AM on May 9 [1 favorite]

I think you might want to invest in ghee. Sweating the spices/onions/garlic/aromatics in the ghee makes a great base. I also think handgrinding the spices with liberal amounts of salt makes a big difference. I call my strategy "the fat build." I start with the fattiest type of coconut or dairy and then add less fatty types as the recipe goes on. So I'm usually cooking my chicken with ghee + the spices, then adding heavy cream/fatty yogurt (I sometimes use coconut cream since I'm a little lactose intolerant), then adding thinner less fatty dairy products if I want more sauce at that point. I taste at each stage. Sometimes I'm pretty damn happy with just the ghee + cream. Fat is a flavor magnet, so if sugar. Sometimes a dash of sugar or a spice like paprika that's slightly sweet can really enhance. I often buy dried peppers from an Indian store for a big punch.

I think that's what restaurant-style Indian is mostly about: really big flavors and not skimping on anything.
posted by melissam at 2:15 AM on May 9

I am still experimenting to find the perfect restaurant-taste indian curry. However, in my experience, coconut milk (and fish sauce, as mentioned upthread) are used in thai curries, so I avoid using either when trying to replicate indian curry. Instead use yogurt and milk or cream. Also, I think you need some cumin in your spices.
posted by dormouse at 7:03 AM on May 9

One "secret" of restaurant curries: heavy cream, and lots of it. I saw a cook at my favorite tandoori joint pour a half gallon of whipping cream into a large pot of curry. I'd guess that dish ended up being 20% whipping cream by volume! This wasn't a swanky establishment, but all good restaurants know that more fat = more flavor.

Obviously you shouldn't eat like that every day, but when you really want a special dinner, reach for the butter and cream. For everyday meals with good flavor and less fat:

1. Start with a good recipe - I second Madhur Jaffrey's cookbooks.

2. Use fresh spices, not the generic curry powder from the supermarket. If possible, buy them whole and grind them yourself right before use. Ethnic markets and hippy-dippy health food stores often sell spices cheaply and in bulk, so you can smell how fresh they are, but you can also order online from San Francisco Herb Co., which has excellent products at good prices.

3. Add the spices into the hot oil at the beginning so they have the most time to release their flavors. Some recipes say to add spices near the end, but I find they taste raw and don't add much flavor to the sauce. Once you add the spices, dump in the first "bulk" ingredient (onions, meat, etc) to keep the oil from getting too hot. Powdered spices will burn easily so you need to moderate the oil temperature. Whole spices are tougher.

4. Cook the meat right in the sauce. There's no point in poaching the chicken first - you want the meat to release its juices into the curry, and the curry flavor to permeate the meat. My favorite chicken "part" is thighs, and I use them whole - right on the bone - in nearly every chicken dish regardless of what the recipe calls for (obvious exceptions: roasts and stirfries).

5. Ghee (clarified butter) is lovely but expensive and rather hard to find. You can replace it with canola oil, corn oil, or any basically flavorless oil. Indian food usually doesn't require the super-high heat of Chinese stirfries, so you don't have to worry too much about the smoking point of your oil. Do not use olive oil, as was noted above, or any other oil with a distinct flavor. OK, maybe you could use coconut fat (it's solid at room T, thus it's a fat rather than an oil), but that's about it. Refined oils only for frying, please - unrefined oils tend to contain stuff that burns at uselessly low temperatures and makes your food taste charred and bitter. Save 'em for flavoring agents at the end of the cooking, or salad dressings.

6. I don't have much luck with keeping yogurt-based sauces smooth - they usually curdle upon heating. Personally I don't mind how it looks, but I can never get the unctuous smoothness of restaurant sauces. That's undoubtedly because I don't use as much fat as they do, but be warned that your curries may not look very pretty. American yogurt is a tragic farce compared to Indian yogurt, which is much richer and thicker (presumably higher in both fat and protein), so if you want pretty, try sour cream, crema fresca, or even whipping cream instead of yogurt.
posted by Quietgal at 8:28 AM on May 9

Or try Greek yogurt, which is thicker, or drain supermarket yogurt in a strainer with cheesecloth for several hours or overnight in the fridge. Save the drained whey for smoothies.

I've had some success stirring a little cornstarch into yogurt before adding it to the sauce, but it's not really canon.
posted by maudlin at 8:37 AM on May 9

I generally add yogurt near the end, after turning the heat down a bit, and I've never had a problem with curdling. I use 10% fat yogurt and cream that is around 33% fat. I'd buy 40% fat cream, but my local grocery doesn't carry it, alas. If you live in Canada, Liberté brand "Mediteraneé" yogurt works well.
posted by pravit at 11:41 AM on May 9

Visit The Curry House.
posted by galaksit at 4:20 PM on May 9 [1 favorite]